Curious Fitness Product at the Microsoft Store November 5, 2009
Posted by Kelly Brady in : Gadgets and Gizmos, Technology for aging , 2commentsWhile visiting the new Microsoft Store in Scottsdale, Arizona, I was curious to see what accessories made the shelves, thinking Microsoft carefully selected products for the limited space available. A device called a ‘Fitbit’ caught my eye; at first I thought it was a Bluetooth headset. Then I noticed the words “Wireless Personal Trainer”.
What is the FitBit Wireless Personal Trainer?
The Fitbit is a small wearable pedometer/accelerometer that records how many steps you take in a day. The unit can even be worn on an included wristband while you sleep to log how effectively and how long you sleep. It wirelessly sync’s itself to your PC and the Internet every 15 minutes using the included USB charger/wireless receiver. Battery charge is excellent – I have been wearing it daily for two weeks and still have 35% charge left.
Easy to use and setup
I’m not going to provide a complete product review here – there are several others you can read such as one on engadget (although I don’t agree with some of the author’s conclusions). However, I think that this is a really nice product that is very easy to use and learn. You can push a button on the front of the device to see how many steps, miles or calories burned, as well as a graphical effort scale. You can also hold this button down to activate and deactivate the nighttime “record my sleep patterns” mode. The unit automatically resets the counter at midnight so there is virtually no user-required management of the unit – just wear it! It actually comes with almost no instructions – see the following photo for the instructions included in the package:
Fitbit's Instruction Manual
To be fair, there is a full and detailed user’s guide on the Fitbit website.
The are no activation fees or monthly charges to upload data and access the website. The website is very simple to use and actually has a lot of features including food logging, calorie tracking etc:
FitBit, Sportbrain and Venture Capital
I think it is significant that Fitbit made it into the Microsoft Store; they are not the first company to market a digital, computer & internet linked fitness device built around a pedometer function. Both Fitbit and several similar products have attracted venture capital recently and years ago. Has the Wii and Wii Fit created a new frontier of health & fitness technology that can attract venture capital even in this market? In 2004/2005 I was a member of the Center for Aging Services Technology (CAST) Commission, headed by Eric Dishman, a senior researcher at Intel Labs. Erik was studying technology applications for Alzheimer’s, and showed up for a meeting wearing his “Sportbrain” activity monitor/pedometer. He often referred to in during presentations as a simple example of how technology can impact health in a non-invasive, even positive ways. Erik would illustrate that a product like Sportbrain, which appeals to all ages (particularly the young, active culture) could get funding, but that products designed for aging & seniors could not – there was a stigma to aging even though the market for these products was rapidly increasing due to the baby boomer retirement wave.
I decided then not to buy a Sportbrain. They charged a monthly fee and the company had recently come out of bankruptcy. Even now, Sportbrain products are hard to find and the website and product line are confusing. Visiting their website you’ll have trouble determining what they sell, which model to buy, what it does, and how to use it. Their product has not evolved, and still does not sync wirelessly.
Sportbrain and Fitbit clearly approach their market differently. Sportbrain as a company seems to have stagnated. They certainly are not showing up in high-profile places like the Microsoft Store, Sports Authority, Dick’s Sports etc. Unlike Sportbrain, Fitbit comes across with a simple and clean appearance for their product and website. They invite direct communication with staff via forums, have a Flickr photostream, a blog and of course, they Tweet. There probably is a clever name for these new era entrepreneurial startups that embrace social media, open their doors and are not afraid to share the behind-the-scenes activity.
Now I need to go take a walk…Fitbit tells me I’ve only reached 7% of my goal of 10,000 steps today…
CDW incapable of selling enterprise solutions! October 31, 2009
Posted by Kelly Brady in : Venture Capital , add a commentI have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with CDW over the past 15+ years as an employee of several companies. I recently needed pricing on 5 HP servers, Microsoft licensing and a firewall appliance, as part of an infrastructure upgrade project. I called up CDW as a new account, provided detailed written specs and asked for quotes on everything. After waiting 3 days with no answer, I finally go through to the rep. He told me he couldn’t get anyone inside that “area” of CDW to respond to his configuration request. He didn’t seem concerned, apologetic or interested. Here was $50,000+ in business dropping in his lap, and he could care less.
CDW is one of a handful of large, national resale partners with HP. One of their competitors is Insight, a company I had bought hundreds of PC’s from in the mid to late 90′s when they used to make clones. I remembered Insight, called and got a very friendly and eager rep, who took my specifications, listened to the goals I was trying to achieve, and promptly got me quotes within an hour. Insight is publicly traded (NSIT), and part of the Fortune 500.
I have heard reports of CDW’s decline from another unsatisfied customer who is in their “Platinum Circle”, an account with their highest level of service. CDW is now privately held since it was acquired by Madison Dearborn Partnersin 2007 for about $7 billion. Almost all of CDW’s sales come from businesses and the public sector. Yet, MDP categorizes them in their “consumer” portfolio which mingles B2B & B2B companies.
It’s surprising that there would be such a decline of an otherwise good company that coincides with this acquisition. One wonders what happened…does MDP misunderstand CDW’s customer base? Did key players at CDW cash out?